Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

@ronboco 

Why does an onboard amp in an active speaker pair better than separate amplification ? Are the drivers different than a passive speaker? Are the crossovers different than in a passive speaker? It seems the only thing active does is eliminate the need for an external amp. 

An example would be the speaker designer could match the appropriate amp to the appropriate speaker driver to achieve their design goals optimally. Also, the designer can place the "crossover" at the point in the audio chain, again, to achieve their goals.

An extreme mismatch example would be for an active two way where the amp driving the top end was a class d plate amp and the low frequency driver driven by a class A 10 watt amp. 

@ghasley 

Thanks for the info. So it’s like bi or tri amping I guess? 

Better powered speakers do indeed utilize specific amps for specific drivers with the crossover before the amps rather than after. With that said, I'm not a fan of powered monitors.

Heads up (on powered speakers): there is currently a Black Friday sale on Sonos speakers at 20% off. Example: Sonos Arc sound bar is now $719

lonemountain and ghasley great examples. Here's what we need to consider, we all know designing amps for specific speakers and visa versa is probably the best leap forward in sound quality. 

But:
We need to understand psychoacoustics and the huge placebo effect that we experience in the audiophile community.
We need to understand known quantities like the near elimination of speaker cables that are inherent in active speakers are real. We know that preamps are between the source and the amp so they are filters wether we think so or not, filters are distortion. We need to be able to justify active speakers and vibration dampening in the amplifier, we know there is active incoherent logic that is so obvious in that illustration.